Series 3 - Cleland family letters

84pp

Kerby A. Miller created his transcripts of the Cleland Letters from the original manuscripts held in PRONI [reference number MIC33]. The PRONI transcripts were provided to Miller by Dr. McHugh, Department of Geography, Queen's University Belfast.

Materials pertaining to a set of 13 letters written between 1853 and 1866 by Joseph and Margaret Cleland in upstate New York and later in Canada West (Ontario) to Margaret's parents in Ballynahinch, County Down. Also included are two letters from Margaret's brother John Barr in Erie, Pennsylvania written in 1872 and 1875. The Clelands and their son emigrated to Niagara County, New York in 1853 before moving to York County (now York Region, Ontario), where brother William Cleland had settled, at the beginning of 1857. Joseph worked in a sawmill with William and as a farmer until his death in 1866. Margaret later remarried to another County Down emigrant, Robert Jordin (Jordan), later that year.
The series includes: biographical notes on the Cleland/Jordin family; a copy of Mac Aodha, Breandán (1957), ‘Letters from America’, Ulster Folklife 3, no. 1, pp. 64-69 discussing Joseph and Margaret Cleland’s letters; and transcripts of the letters created by PRONI and by Kerby A. Miller.